Express
by Pokabu
Summary: It's not the going to that's hard when attending a party. It's the getting ready...and the older brother interfering with costumes. — Modern Day AU, male!Mikasa, fem!Eren, fem!Armin.


Disclaimer: I do not own SnK.

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"Eren," Armin finds herself speaking, voice low and nervous as she plays with the black and white stockings she'd purchased at the costume store. "I'm not sure about this."

About her costume, about her hair style, about the party, _about Eren being the one helping her with her makeup_-

"It'll be all right," Eren pitches immediately, gaze locked on the soft pink she is dusting against Armin's pale – too pale – cheeks. She adds too much of the powdery chalk (blush, she chides herself mentally, Mom called it blush) and releases a soft growl, brushing her thumb against the thick placement to even it out.

Armin fidgets at the contact, steeling herself when Eren lets out a whine about her moving around too much, and chooses to instead fiddle with the edges of her flared blue dress. "I... It's a senior party, though..." she twirls a stray thread around her pointer finger and tugs, snapping it. She refrains from commenting about all the other factors worrying her, instead choosing to indulge what she assumes Eren believes to be the cause of her nerves.

"So? Mikasa's going too and he's a junior." Eren replies back immediately, lowering her hand and brushing her blush-covered thumb against her bed's comforter. Armin's blue eyes are clearly disapproving, but Eren merely shrugs. "I'll wash it later," she says simply, resting her hand lightly under Armin's chin and turning her friend's head sideways. Her teal eyes scan her work critically, and she only allows her hand to drop when she's fully satisfied. "I think that'll do – here."

Eren hands over the mirror that had come with her mother's (borrowed) makeup supplies. Armin takes it after a tick of hesitance, resigning herself to her fate. She lifts it up and peers at her reflection-

She...doesn't look bad.

Her cheeks are notably more colorful than when she had first entered her best friend's room and her lips are shinier with gloss, but her own eyes enchant her the most. Eyeshadow. Eren had been steady with keeping it from getting too pasty, and her effort indeed paid off. The blue there doesn't look awful as Armin had imagined (feared). It's light, yet eye-catching, and stretches close to her brow in a thin arch.

It's almost sinister, and Armin muses that she would probably fit in more with her costume's theme had she donned a wig.

Nevertheless, she smiles and hands back the mirror to her anxious friend, nodding and whispering a, "It looks good" to quell the other girl's nerves.

Eren deflates with relief and Armin nearly giggles outright, biting her tongue with the knowledge Eren would not appreciate such an action. To further keep herself from cracking, she asks, "Where'd you learn to apply makeup?"

Eren shrugs. "Videos, Mom, girls at school..." Well, she'd always been a fast learner. Eren looks at her nightstand alarm clock for the time, then turns her attention back to Armin. "We should get going now. Mikasa might get into a fight over parking space."

Armin can't help but let out a few peals of giggles at that. "You mean _you_ _will_ get into a fight about parking space."

She giggles even more when Eren glares at her, sliding off her glowering best friend's bed and heading to her discarded backpack near the door. Her necklace and bracelets are tucked in there along with her pointed hat. The hat is a little hard to get on and she needs to beg Eren for help, but it's cute and doesn't slide off when the brunette does get up off her bed and help pin it to Armin's ponytail.

She tunes in to Eren complaining about her outfit being too common (she's a witch, though to her credit she hasn't seen blue used as of today) before rolling up her own brown hair into buns at the sides of her head. Her costume isn't all that original either (she's a wolf), but Armin has to give her credit – using her own hair as makeshift "ears" is cute.

Although Eren reasons it's only for practicality. She doesn't want to risk putting on a headband only for it to slip off and get lost in the crowd. And if her hair gets messy? She'll just fix it again. Or have Armin fix it for her (Mikasa's too rough with her hair).

It's not a good enough reason to sway Armin's curiosity. She wants to ask who it's for, who everything's for, because Eren has never been all that fond of parties either and she hasn't bothered to dress up for Halloween the past two years, but instead she smiles and points out Eren's tail is lop-sided – fixes that when asked – and the two make their way out of the room and downstairs.

Mikasa is waiting for them by the front door, and Armin still isn't sure what he is. When she first arrived he seemed like a butler, then later as they headed into Eren's room the blonde could have sworn he was pulling off some age-old vampire. Now as the dark-haired boy looks over Eren and notes the shortness of her top and how it bunches down around her chest, shrugs out of his dark coat and swings it over her shoulders, Armin believes he looks a bit like a gangster.

She watches the siblings squabble for a bit over the coat ("Dammit, Mikasa, I don't need it! It's not even cold out!" "We're not leaving if you don't wear it.") and ultimately Eren has to give up since Mikasa's the only one who can drive.

She still rebels and climbs into the backseat with Armin, Mikasa tossing her a pointed stare from the rear view mirror, but the real kicker comes when she mumbles half-heartedly that Mikasa's just worried about Levi and the car jerks violently out the walkway, Eren crying out as her head bumps the window.

Mikasa doesn't even bother to apologize as his little sister launches herself to the passenger's seat to yell at him indignantly, only her upper body making it but that's all she needs to scream at her brother. Mikasa calmly repels her with his helpful advice of, "You'll get hurt if you keep doing that."

Eren still doesn't settle back down, and Armin amuses herself by picking at her stockings and fixing Eren's tail when it comes undone due to the brunette's flailing upfront.

_I__t's going to be a long night, _she thinks.

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**Author's Note:** Eek, first ever fill for the SnK kink meme! OP, I hope you like this!


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